Louisville Attorney Friedman Disbarred

by Rick Howlett on April 26, 2012

A former attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky has been permanently disbarred over his handling of client funds in his private practice.

The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled today that David Friedman of Louisville withheld more than 100-thousand dollars in judgments he won for several clients, using the money for personal expenses because of financial problems.

Friedman did not contest his disbarment and admitted to six violations of professional ethics rules.

The action doesn’t stem from any work Friedman did for the ACLU during his long tenure as its volunteer general counsel, during which he argued a number of high-profile cases.

In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with his argument that the posting of the Ten Commandments in Kentucky courthouses violated the separation of church and state.

(Information for this story came from the Associated Press; 2007 photo from the ACLU of Kentucky)